thedrifter
11-07-07, 06:45 AM
Carlson: Tibbets was happy to keep low profile
By JOHN CARLSON
REGISTER COLUMNIST
November 7, 2007
I'm guessing Paul Tibbets could have walked into a lot of American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars meetings without turning a head.
He would have been just one of the veterans, having coffee and talking about the weather, not looking to draw attention to himself. The difference would have come when they started sharing stories. Smiles and recognition would have come when Tibbets mentioned the daylight bombing runs over Germany and his transfer to the Pacific for the most important mission of World War II.
Tibbets' fellow veterans would have realized they were with the man who organized and led the Aug. 6, 1945, flight of the B-29 known as the Enola Gay and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
One more guess: Every veteran in those Legion and VFW halls would have been honored to shake his hand.
Tibbets died last week in Ohio at the age of 92.
I met him 12 years ago, a couple of weeks before the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. He was in Iowa — where he lived as a small child — to attend the now-defunct Aviation Expo air show in Ankeny.
Three members of the Enola Gay crew were there. Dutch Van Kirk, the navigator, and Tom Ferebee, the bombardier, were there the first day of the show, and I stopped by to say hello.
They were nice fellows, but reluctant to say much to an Iowa newspaper reporter they'd never met. Van Kirk said they'd been slammed a few too many times by journalists and they didn't think it was worth their time answering dumb questions and have their answers distorted.
I said that was fine, but asked if it would be OK if I hung around to watch them greet Iowans. No problem.
Which was a break, because they were being stalked by a TV crew from Japan, led by a respectful but insistent young woman who desperately wanted an interview. It put Van Kirk and Ferebee in a foul mood.
"They want us to wring our hands and say we're sorry for what we did to the poor Japanese, that we're terrible people, monsters and killers," said Van Kirk. "When the Japanese apologize for the rape of Nanking, for the Bataan Death March, when they apologize for Pearl Harbor, then maybe I'll think about saying we're sorry."
Van Kirk and Ferebee ended up deciding I was all right and we talked. They were proud of what they'd done in the war and had no regrets about Hiroshima.
They said Tibbets, the pilot, their leader, the man who got most of the unwanted publicity, would be there the next day. But forget an interview. There was no way Tibbets would talk with me, they said. He didn't like reporters, either.
We'll shortcut this by saying Tibbets, who had driven to Ankeny from his home in Columbus, Ohio, parked his car behind the "Enola Gay Crew" tent as promised. I introduced myself to him and - a shocker - he was delighted to talk.
He, too, had no regrets about piloting the plane - named after his mother, Enola Gay Haggard of Glidden - because there is no question it led to the Japanese surrender.
"I didn't have any crystal ball," he said. "I knew there would be a hell of a big bang and I knew it would kill a lot of people, including some American prisoners of war. I also knew that if the darned thing worked the way it was supposed to, it would demonstrate to the Japanese the futility of continuing the war."
He was right, and the World War II veterans at the Ankeny air show specifically sought out Tibbets to say thanks.
One after another, the men, most in their 70s or 80s, stopped strolling past the exhibits, stared, then almost shyly walked up to say hello.
Their words were the same: "You saved my life."
They explained they were among the soldiers and Marines preparing for the invasion of Japan that almost certainly would have cost an estimated 1 million Japanese and American lives.
"It's always nice to hear that," Tibbets told me.
Ferebee died seven years ago.
Van Kirk, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay flight crew, lives in Georgia.
Tibbets is said to have left instructions that there be no memorials and no stone marking his grave site. He didn't want it to become a gathering place for protesters to exploit.
The men who stopped by the tent in Ankeny that day in 1995, the veterans who shook Tibbets' hand and thanked him for saving their lives, would find that to be very sad.
Columnist John Carlson can be reached at (515) 284-8204 or jcarlson@dmreg.com
Ellie
By JOHN CARLSON
REGISTER COLUMNIST
November 7, 2007
I'm guessing Paul Tibbets could have walked into a lot of American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars meetings without turning a head.
He would have been just one of the veterans, having coffee and talking about the weather, not looking to draw attention to himself. The difference would have come when they started sharing stories. Smiles and recognition would have come when Tibbets mentioned the daylight bombing runs over Germany and his transfer to the Pacific for the most important mission of World War II.
Tibbets' fellow veterans would have realized they were with the man who organized and led the Aug. 6, 1945, flight of the B-29 known as the Enola Gay and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
One more guess: Every veteran in those Legion and VFW halls would have been honored to shake his hand.
Tibbets died last week in Ohio at the age of 92.
I met him 12 years ago, a couple of weeks before the 50th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. He was in Iowa — where he lived as a small child — to attend the now-defunct Aviation Expo air show in Ankeny.
Three members of the Enola Gay crew were there. Dutch Van Kirk, the navigator, and Tom Ferebee, the bombardier, were there the first day of the show, and I stopped by to say hello.
They were nice fellows, but reluctant to say much to an Iowa newspaper reporter they'd never met. Van Kirk said they'd been slammed a few too many times by journalists and they didn't think it was worth their time answering dumb questions and have their answers distorted.
I said that was fine, but asked if it would be OK if I hung around to watch them greet Iowans. No problem.
Which was a break, because they were being stalked by a TV crew from Japan, led by a respectful but insistent young woman who desperately wanted an interview. It put Van Kirk and Ferebee in a foul mood.
"They want us to wring our hands and say we're sorry for what we did to the poor Japanese, that we're terrible people, monsters and killers," said Van Kirk. "When the Japanese apologize for the rape of Nanking, for the Bataan Death March, when they apologize for Pearl Harbor, then maybe I'll think about saying we're sorry."
Van Kirk and Ferebee ended up deciding I was all right and we talked. They were proud of what they'd done in the war and had no regrets about Hiroshima.
They said Tibbets, the pilot, their leader, the man who got most of the unwanted publicity, would be there the next day. But forget an interview. There was no way Tibbets would talk with me, they said. He didn't like reporters, either.
We'll shortcut this by saying Tibbets, who had driven to Ankeny from his home in Columbus, Ohio, parked his car behind the "Enola Gay Crew" tent as promised. I introduced myself to him and - a shocker - he was delighted to talk.
He, too, had no regrets about piloting the plane - named after his mother, Enola Gay Haggard of Glidden - because there is no question it led to the Japanese surrender.
"I didn't have any crystal ball," he said. "I knew there would be a hell of a big bang and I knew it would kill a lot of people, including some American prisoners of war. I also knew that if the darned thing worked the way it was supposed to, it would demonstrate to the Japanese the futility of continuing the war."
He was right, and the World War II veterans at the Ankeny air show specifically sought out Tibbets to say thanks.
One after another, the men, most in their 70s or 80s, stopped strolling past the exhibits, stared, then almost shyly walked up to say hello.
Their words were the same: "You saved my life."
They explained they were among the soldiers and Marines preparing for the invasion of Japan that almost certainly would have cost an estimated 1 million Japanese and American lives.
"It's always nice to hear that," Tibbets told me.
Ferebee died seven years ago.
Van Kirk, the last surviving member of the Enola Gay flight crew, lives in Georgia.
Tibbets is said to have left instructions that there be no memorials and no stone marking his grave site. He didn't want it to become a gathering place for protesters to exploit.
The men who stopped by the tent in Ankeny that day in 1995, the veterans who shook Tibbets' hand and thanked him for saving their lives, would find that to be very sad.
Columnist John Carlson can be reached at (515) 284-8204 or jcarlson@dmreg.com
Ellie